But my question is, why do they soak the artificial turf with water before each match?

To reduce the number of knee and ankle injuries and skin abrasions.

I thought it was to make the ball run more smoothly and quickly along the ground, but yours is probably more important.

Things are going great for the GB ladies so far, but global hockey's deep enough that there could easily be upsets in any of the quarter-finals. Which is a positive for our men, who're going to be lucky to make the quarters in the first place.

Back in the day, we played on grass. Really a fun game but totally different on a slower field. And really slow when it got ankle deep in mud! Sometimes the ball would get lost in the mud and there would be great thrashing around until it was found again. Ah, those were the days... And yes, occasionally we'd play on artificial turf and that would just plain feel wrong.

_________________“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.”
― Maya Angelou

OK, the heck with basketball and soccer and volleyball. I have a new favorite US women's team. Last place in London, now 4-0 in pool play and clinched a spot in the Quarters. This US field hockey team is terrific.

They completely dominated India today.

Whoever said "let's go hire the Great Britain coach" after the last Olympics deserves a bonus.

The FIH have really done an impressive job of tweaking the game to make it much more watchable. I found hockey really dull growing up. It was painfully stop-start, and it seemed like the only way anyone ever scored was on penalty-corners, usually gained by intentionally hitting the ball into an opponent's foot. These days the game actually flows, and you get goals in open play. It shows what you can achieve when you're not too precious about your game, and are willing to test potential improvements.

The self-pass (free hits after fouls/infractions can just be taken immediately as the start of a dribble) in particular was an important change that must've seemed strange initially, but it works. I love their replay referral system as well, although it hasn't been perfect at this Olympics (usually you can hear every word the officials say to each other).

I'm a big fan of the GB women's team, and really hope they can continue their strong form after winning every game in the group. It'd be such a shame to waste all that now we're into the knock-out stages.